Breaking the Bank at Monte Carlo - Joseph Jagger
Without doubt part of the success and popularity of roulette, is due to it's rich and enduring history. The game of roulette has a history of over 240 years, and has developed a whole variety of strategies, stories and even myths. Few of those who seek a system or method that will make their fortune in the casinos have ever heard of Joseph Jagger.
Joseph Jagger's background however was entirely different, in fact he was an engineer in a small town in Yorkshire. His main inspiration came from mechanics of the roulette wheel, he was certain that a lot of roulette wheels would have built in imperfections which could create a small bias in the numbers that were spun. In the European casinos, the house advantage is so slight that any small advantage could create huge winnings for a disciplined gambler.
For the majority this is where the plan would have stopped, but Joseph Jagger put his plans into action. In 1873 he hired a group of 6 clerks and set off for Monte carlo, a daunting journey from a small mill town in Yorkshire. His clerks were the 'clockers' who would analyse and record every spin on as many roulette wheels as possible in order to spot some bias. The casinos simply had never seen anything quite like this, so they allowed the clockers in to do their work.
In 1875 the next phase of the plan was ready for action, the clockers though they had identified a single biased wheel that appeared to favour a certain group of numbers, meaning that certain roulette bets would have produced much better odds. Joseph didn't hang around and instantly started betting on that specific wheel. On his very first day he won the massive amount of $70,000. Of course the bias was not so obvious that it guaranteed winning consistently but as any gambler knows an advantage or 'edge' will soon grow if you play sensibly. On the second day he alone won about $300,000 and his growing group of followers also won a huge amount as well.
Of course by this time Jagger had become a very serious problem to the casinos who were losing big time. They weren't quite certain on Jagger's secret but they did guess correctly that it had something to do with the wheels. During that evening they switched every table around and the Jagger didn't notice initially that he was gambling at a different table. He began to lose heavily until he noticed the absence of the familiar scratch marks on the roulette wheel. He went in search of his 'biased' wheel and pretty soon started winning again. The Casino owners had now figured out the problem, the wheel was indeed biased due to some problem with the frets - the little dividers between the slots on a wheel. They casino switched the offending dividers and removed the bias on that particular roulette wheel. With the bias removed he began to lose, but he was no fool and soon cashed in his winnings. His profit was something equal to about 5 million dollars today, he paid up his associates and returned to Yorkshire to quit his job and invest his winnings.
This amazing man was often touted as the 'man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo' although this is not quite true you have to admire him, in these days were we can login and play online roulette in minutes, even making it to Monte was quite an achievement. He certainly masterminded a huge roulette payouts and the Yorkshire engineer certainly caused a stir.
tags:monte carlo,casino,gambling,casino strategies,casino stories
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